*The following is an abbreviated posting of an article on the way Democrats and Americans are handling health reform.

It's amazing how many awesome and awesomely offensive political ads have been surfacing over the last week as McCain's negative attack ads, ones that have failed to give him the edge he needs over Obama, who polls show has runaway approval ratings across the board. So, the GOP has begun to resort to even less savory tactics.

An interesting article by Deepak Chopra gets to the heart of the nation's polarizing relationship with Sarah Palin. He says, "She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow, deriding his idealism and exhorting people to obey their worst impulses. In psychological terms the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides out of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of 'the other.'"

In the aftermath of the Republican and Democrat nominations, new poll figures indicate that the race for America's heads, hearts, and votes is widening slightly; Obama is edging out

(hat-tip Open Left)

Disclaimer: This is a piece of writing that I did in my sophomore year of High School for a presentation to attend Close-Up in Washington D.C. I rediscovered it and thought how sadly it has remained relevant nearly four years later. It was also an interesting look at how I was reacting to the growing "war on terror."

11 November 2004

On one hand we are told by some that Bush is pushing war and bent on abandoning the international system of rules and instructions built up by previous presidents. Others argue that Bush has drawn a necessary line in the sand between America and a dangerous coalition of stateless terrorists and rogue nations.

I didn't watch the CNN/Youtube Republican debate, but I hear it was the highest rated primary debate in cable news history.

So I figured I'd pull together some highlights and post it here for those who missed the debate...

For most of this country's history, when senators wanted to single-handedly steamroll a bill they didn't like, they had to be a lot more dedicated than they do now. Taking advantage of the senate tradition of allowing unlimited debate, a single senator could "filibuster" for as long humanly possible in hopes of running out the clock and getting the bill's supporters to give up and move on. Arguably the most famous such incident was arch-segregationist Strom Thurmond's filibuster of the Civil Rights Act of 1957 (a precursor to the more famous 1964 edition), in which he read from, among other things, a Charleston, S.C. phone directory for over 24 hours straight. It's hard to imagine a senator doing that over any kind of legislation today (let alone something, you know, important like the Civil Rights Act).

Following the Republicans' block of Senate's no-confidence vote on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales yesterday (53-38, 7 short of the 60 needed), President W. offered this; "They can have their votes of no confidence, but it's not going to make the determination about who serves in my government."